Red Lanterns #27

By Charles Soule, Alessandro Vitti, J. Calafiore & Gabe Eltaeb

Red Lanterns #27 is the final Red Lanterns issue before the flipbook containing both Green Lanterns & Red Lanterns #28 that sees Supergirl become a Red Lantern. However, that is far from the centre of attention here as Soule explores Guy Gardner’s meeting with an old friend, Ice, and as the cover suggests, the encounter doesn’t go down too well. It’s interesting to see the characters meet and Soule handles it pretty well. Even though I may be a relative newcomer to not just Red Lanterns but the Green Lantern franchise in general it wasn’t thrown off by the appearance of the character.

The confrontation between Tora and Guy was not the only talking point of the issue, however. Soule proves that he can write humour well and one of the more amusing scenes in this book came when two Red Lanterns head to Earth with Guy and explore the world’s landmarks, with their reaction to the Red Sea, The Grand Canyon and Paris proving that just because the New 52 titles may be grimdark doesn’t mean that they can have a bit of fun in the title too, and as proved by this issue, Soule shows the reader that you can’t just have one or the other. You can have both, and this is something that I have loved about the Red Lanterns book ever since I jumped on reading at #25. It’s one of my go-to books if I want something fun to read and ever since Soule has taken over I’ve really become a lot more invested in this title then I had done previously – because whilst my first single issue was at #25 I did have experience with Red Lanterns in The Rise of the Third Army crossover, where I was not entirely sold on their storyline.

The artistic talent on this book is split between Alessandro Vitti and Jim Calafiore, and whilst sometimes having multiple artists on a book lowers the quality as the switch can feel jarring and out of place it doesn’t happen here, with both artists styles blending so well that you won’t be able to tell the difference, with Vitti covering pages 1-5, 9-13 & 18 whilst Calafiore handles pages 6-8, 14-17 & 19-20. There is only one colourist on the book and that is Gabe Eltaeb, whose colours are for the most part pretty awesome – the cover itself is striking and the interior artwork is bold, clear and awesome.

Red Lanterns #27 continues to be the best of the Green Lantern line currently available. It’s a great series that is really worth reading even if you’ve been turned off by the core line and whilst you may be skeptical about the decision to make Supergirl into a Red Lantern, Charles Soule will be the one writer who can convince you to get behind this decision. Initially I was unsure about this decision myself but Soule has now won me over and I can’t wait until next week for the double sized Green Lantern #28/Red Lanterns #28. It should be great.